Friday, November 09, 2007

Have you ever gone to the video rental place and found box art looked suspiciously like a previously made film, or looked like the poster for a film that was still playing in the theatres? You won't have to look to hard to find titles like "Transmorphers" or "Snakes on a Train," so you may wonder where these straight-to-DVD, overt knockoffs come from.

There is nothing wrong with making a cheep film. Having a story to tell and the passion to tell it can often make one reach beyond the budgetary grasp. There is nothing wrong with making amateur films. There is nothing wrong with parody, or riffing on popular culture. However The Asylum makes derivative clones on the cheap and sends them out to make a quick buck.